Fox News reaches $12 million settlement with former Tucker Carlson producer
Fox News has agreed to settle two lawsuits from former ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ producer Abby Grossberg, who alleged that the network subjected her to a hostile work environment and pressured her into giving false testimony in a high-profile election fraud case.
The settlement was announced by Grossberg’s lawyer on Friday and confirmed by Fox shortly afterwards. “We are pleased that we have been able to resolve this matter without further litigation,” the network said.
The $12 million payout comes on top of a whopping $800 million paid by Fox to Dominion Voting Systems in April. The company, which manufactures electronic voting machines, sued Fox after a number of the network’s shows – including ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ – aired claims that Dominion helped swing the 2020 presidential election in favor of Joe Biden.
In one of two lawsuits against Fox, Grossberg claimed that she was “coerced, intimidated, and misinformed” into giving false testimony in the Dominion case, and was given “woefully inferior and inadequate legal representation” compared to her male colleagues.
Carlson was abruptly fired by Fox News in April, with the network giving no explanation for dismissing the most popular host on prime-time television. However, Grossberg had sued Fox a month earlier alleging that Carlson’s male producers made sexist and anti-Semitic jokes at her expense. Grossberg then gave a series of media interviews in which she called Carlson a racist and claimed that he and his top producer, Justin Wells, made her life a “living hell.”
Grossberg worked as Carlson’s head of booking from September 2022 until this March. "I know nothing about her. I never met her,” Carlson told NPR in April.
In a statement on Friday, Grossberg said that she was “heartened that Fox News has taken me and my legal claims seriously.”
“I am hopeful, based on our discussions with Fox News today, that this resolution represents a positive step by the network regarding its treatment of women and minorities in the workplace,” she added.
Carlson has since launched a new show on Twitter, which closely follows the monologue style of ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’s opening segments. Earlier this month, Fox’s lawyers ordered Carlson to cease producing new material, claiming that doing so violates his existing contract with Fox.
“Tucker will not be silenced by anyone,” his lawyer, Harmeet K. Dhillon, said in response.
